By Bob Goodwin ’72
“If I were to start a new university, there would not be fraternities on its campus” (University of Pennsylvania 1970 Record, page 148)”
There was some justification for these remarks made by Vice Provost Jack Russell at the Interfraternity – Pan Hellenic Leadership Conference in 1969. A year earlier, a fraternity had its charter revoked by its national organization. In December 1967, a Christmas tree caught fire in another fraternity house resulting in deaths. As a senior in high school in Philadelphia at the time, I remember my father saying after he read the local news that he hoped I would never join a fraternity. I wish to share a different and significantly more positive perspective.
Many of the reasons I joined Alpha Chi Rho are explained in the excellent article on phiphiclub.com by Byron Connell ’63 about what impacted his decision to join. Byron’s catalyst was National Secretary Curly Walden. In the fall of 1968, mine was fellow Penn Band trombonist and Alpha Chi Rho Phi Phi Treasurer Mike Karpinski ‘70.
A week before freshman orientation, Penn Band held Band Camp which allowed us newbies to learn the music and arrive on campus already knowing a few people. I bunked with Mike and trumpet player Don Allen, both of whom were Crows, and through them met another dozen Penn Band fraternity brothers. I fell in almost instantly with them and, although I looked at several other fraternity houses, came back to Alpha Chi Rho at the end of rush.
Like Byron, I found Alpha Chi Rho’s pledge program to be free of hazing and spent the second half of that time working with my fellow pledges to fix up the house. We could see the benefits immediately as we would be living there the following year. In addition, the Brotherhood was becoming more diverse, disproving Dr. Russell’s claim about discrimination. As Corresponding Secretary in my sophomore and junior years, I published quarterly articles in The Garnet and White about the positive impact of our chapter’s activities on the community and ourselves. My senior year as Chaplain, I coordinated with other fraternities’ chaplains in an unsuccessful attempt to restore a house just off campus pre-Habitat for Humanity, again challenging to Dr. Russell’s comments.
The location, as Byron wrote, was helpful — we were literally at the center of campus and witnessed such events as then-University President Martin Meyerson calling a campus strike in 1970 to protest escalation of the Vietnam War. Proximity to class allowed me to fall out of bed just a few minutes before class, not something to take lightly when my pre-med chemistry classes without fail started at 8 AM.
So what does all this have to do with me 50 years later and why am I still involved with AXP? As an only child, I had never had a brotherhood experience until I joined AXP. On a campus of thousands in a city of millions, then as now it is important to have a “home” where one benefits from in-person relationships in a way that non-fraternity people would not understand. Facebook, Twitter and the other mass social media are not substitutes.
Faced with life and death challenges as a physician in practice for 42 years, I practice the lessons of teamwork learned at Phi Phi and am able to connect with my peers stressed particularly these last two years with Covid19. I’ve been married to the same lovely person since 1976 (even if unlike Byron, I did not meet her through AXP), I have put into action the principles of compromise without surrendering one’s values, constructive criticism, and negotiation all finely honed at Phi Phi. I would like today’s young men to have a similar experience.
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of meeting Byron, several current undergrads, and catching up briefly with Brothers John Kelly, Don Dinan and Juan Cockburn (all ’71 graduates) when in town to celebrate our combined pandemic-delayed 50th college reunions.
Downstairs at the annual meeting, I learned of major structural challenges facing our House such as the need for a new roof (ideally with solar panels to cut energy costs), better ventilation for our kitchen, and some new paneling for the foyer. We graduates are in a position to “pass it forward” to these young men financially so that, contrary to the concluding paragraph on page 151 of the 1970 record, we do not face extinction.